November 8, 2012

As an old Audible Althouse listener, I can understand the appeal of having a friendly well-modulated voice in your ears (though I usually can't get through entire an podcast and I'm too impatient to listen to books, even while driving). But I guess I listen to music for the occasional goose-bumps or “bubbles in your head” experience. Listening to a young blonde whisper in your ear seems like cheating, if not outright pr0n... I may need to try this out with earbuds later, just to see if I get weirded out, or if it just seems funny, or what. "Unsettling" seems like a reasonable starting point, even (very quietly) through tinny office computer speakers.

Wow! I watched some of those ASMR videos, then went back to some Audible Althouse — my 2005-2006 podcast project— they're all here [ADDED: or maybe not.] It really does seem like that ASMR stuff. Truly strange from that perspective!

If... you’re one of the people the video was made for—one of those people who experience Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response—you’ll probably find all six minutes incredibly satisfying, the video equivalent of a really nice, mellow kind of drug that leaves no aftertaste....

ASMR is a tricky feeling to describe, and I can only talk about it secondhand. From what I understand from conversations with ASMRers, it’s a tingle in your brain, a kind of pleasurable headache that can creep down your spine....

11 comments:

I can identify with the goosebumps/whole body tingling described but music does that for me. I'd never thought of it as possible from a human voice (or knew that there was even a term for this). I couldn't listen to the whole thing. She has a nice voice but I too found it creepy.

I've never heard of this, but I've experienced feelings similar to the ones described. For me it's connected to a tactile experience like repeatedly smoothing my hand over a slightly rough surface, or walking on sand.

I have had this experience a few times in my life, and while trying to explain it to others, to see if they had ever had it too, I could never find anyone who knew what I was talking about.

I had named itmyself, "the tinglies". Low and behold, I finally told my wife about it, oh about 20-25 years ago, and she knew immediately knew what I was talking about, and had experienced it few times herself.

The incidents have been rare, for both of us, but each one memorable.

Now, thanks to this thread, we know it has a name, and I'm happy to be one of those to whom it occasionally happens.

Alas, it has been many years since I've had one, but I can report that when they are occurring, there is nothing in the world like it, and you want it to go on forever.

None of these videos do it for me. It just has to 'happen', though for me, when it does, it is always someone doing something slow, methodical, and repetitive. Has never involved a human voice, again, for me, but sound is a part of it.

There. More than you wanted to know.

But as John Sebastian wrote, "I'll tell you about the magic, and it'll free your soulBut it's like trying to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll"

Hmmm, makes me want to hear those Glenn Gould documentaries. Maybe I'll check to see if iTunes may have them a bit cheaper than 3 for $18... Seems like a lot to spend if I don't listen to them more than once.

Weird! I always get this whenever I watch the home shopping channel people put makeup on the models during the cosmetics times. I never knew it was a thing -- I just it was related to liking to buy makeup.